Arsenal – Fifa 2-3

We all could see that Arsenal was totally in control of the game against Tottenham in the first half. And then we ran out of steam as it was visible that some players were struggling to keep up the pace. Did the international games have any effect on this? Why don’t we try to find out?

So let us start by having a look at how many players in the starting lineup have been away this week and how much time they have played for their country.

Arsenal started with :

Fabianski played 90 minutes for Poland and was away for a few days.

Sagna played 87 minutes for France and was away for a few days

Squillaci stayed in London

Koscielny stayed in London

Clichy was away for France but didn’t play

Arshavin played 90 minutes for Russia and had some troubles with his transport

Fabregas played 45 minutes with Spain and was away for a few days

Nasri played 90 minutes for France and was away for a few days

Denilson stayed in London

Song stayed in London

Chamakh played 71 minutes for Morocco and was away for a few days

So in total we had 7 players that were away this week until they could resume normal training on Friday and in total they played 473 minutes of football. And this also involved a lot of transport and the fact that many players only could start to prepare the game on Friday morning is something that can have a negative impact.

And I know that Arshavin had a lot of trouble to get to the place where the international game in Russia was played as there were a lot of problems with the fog and they had to travel by train to get there.

Gomes stayed in London as far as I know but he certainly didn’t play for Brazil

Hutton stayed in London

Gallas stayed in London

Kaboul got a late call for France but didn’t play but was away a few days

Assou-Ekotto stayed in London

Bale stayed in London

Van der Vaart played 80 minutes for Holland against Turkey and was away a few days

Modric played 90 minutes for Croatia against Malta and was away a few days

Jenas stayed in London

Lennon stayed in London

Pavlyuchenko stayed in London

So in Total they had 3 players that were away this week and in total they had some 170 minutes of football played by 2 players.

So this means that we had more than half our team out this week or not at our disposal to train in a normal way. To be exact 63 % of our team was away and only 27 % of the Tottenham team was away.

And if you would take into account the substitutes the numbers are even more clear. All our players were on international duty this week and only Wilshere did not play because of injury. On the Tottenham bench there was only Crouch and Corluka who were on international duty.

Well, you actually can’t. How can you prepare such a game in one day? You can’t do such a thing. But we had no choice. And if you compare this to Tottenham who only had 5 players out and that is 27% of their squad. That is a difference of 50%. Now if half of your team is getting tired because of this, you can bet this makes a difference.

Our players also played a lot more than their Tottenham counterparts. So not only in numbers but also in playing time our players had to work harder than the Tottenham players. And certainly in the line up.

And when you look at how the game developed it was clear to see that the players that played almost or the full 90 minutes for their country gradually faded away. Nasri, Arshavin, Sagna started very well but couldn’t keep it up. Chamakh also looked tired during the game and he also couldn’t keep the tempo up. And the same thing happened to the Tottenham players who had played during the week. Van der Vaart was very quiet apart from his free kicks and Modric also didn’t had an impressive game.

So I think that we didn’t lose the game on saturday. No it was a lost game before we started it. Most of us didn’t realised it at that time and I just hoped it wouldn’t affect our game. But I am sure it did.

We lost the game during the friendly international games this week. We lost the game because the brainless Fifa heads decided for some strange reason we should be playing international games in this time of the season. Like I said earlier this week: this was a ridiculous time to play those useless games. And they cost us dearly.

Well the good thing is that for now there will be no more time to lose our players for friendly internationals and also in the next few months.

48 comments to Arsenal – Fifa 2-3

Nasri played 4 games in 10 days so the burden is very high. Will be interesting to see who plays away on Tuesday.
By the way. The third Sprs goal free kick was taken a good 6 metres closer to the goal than the foul occurred, making the kick and goal easier. Something for your ref and linesman review.

Walter, fine we accept your reasoning but should not Wenger realised this as well and do something about it. Especially after half time when we are two goals up? I know many things are clear on hindside but this team needs to learn to shut down play when needed.

The international friendlies were a factor – they fatigued some of our first team players and impaired our ability to fully prepare for the Spurs match – but ultimately I don’t believe that it had a significant effect on the game.

By the time some of our players began to show tiredness we were 2-0 up, and this fatigue affected mainly our front three of Nasri, Arshavin and Chamakh – players who we had strong cover for on the bench to cope with their low energy levels, and who are far more interchangeable than defenders.

The crucial foundations of the team (the central ‘block’ of CB and CM – Squillaci, Koscielny, Song and Denilson) were not called up and spent the entire week together in preparation to face Spurs. So to blame tiredness for our late culmination is, in my opinion, a poor excuse.

We were simply too naive and irresponsible to defend our 2 goal lead as we ought to have done (and have done very well on the road). Too many players were more interested in going forward to score more goals and not focused enough on protecting what they had. Wenger praised the team after the Man City match on “negotiating in an intelligent way the difficulties of the game”. This is what we didn’t do against Spurs, the players did not react to the way the game was developing in an intelligent manner. They kept on mindlessly attacking looking for a goal that we didn’t even need, when the situation called for us to become more restrained and commit fewer men forward.

load of goulies. i respect your opinion & always will, but you are not talking sense this time.
i would have expected any of our second teams to put up a better show than these nobodies.
the fact is denilson is pure rubbish. the laziest player i have ever seen.
chamack cannot perform up front on his own. he is also very timid gets pushed about too much for me. he should have had at least 3 goals maybe four.
our centre backs are average at best. i think someone should tell them they are allowed to head the ball because i don’t think they know.
add to this a goalie who inspires nothing a coaching team who have no idea how to change things and you can see why we lost.
it was nothing to do with fifa it was our over rated numbskull players and a brain dead coaching team.

Re PK. I agree entirely with what you say. With AW and PR at ringside, it should have been obvious to them that guys were struggling and subbed early.I can understand one sub at 58 mins but 2 at 77 doesn’t suggest to me that tiredness was really appreciated by the bench.

I actually said to this Spursfan I know on friday that they have 1 advantage in the match and that was it was after international match break. SO I kind of excepted us to be not as great as usually. But that didn’t make result any easier.
For PK I don’t know what Wenger could do as he could only make 3 changes maybe do them earlier but not sure if that would have changed anything.

i quite agree with you but chamakh should av been sub in d 1st min of the 2nd half bcos most of the killer passes given 2 by fab was wasted.what i think we need is a deadly strker who is not afraid 2 make a drive,who is not afraid 2 shoot,which i know chamakh is lacking….at least rvp would have been better,chamakh is a Girl!!!she is a bunch of dirt!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@FinnGooner
Wenger did make the right substitutions, he took off the fatigued front three and replaced them with RVP, Walcott and Rosicky. I agree that the only thing he could have done was bring them on earlier, but that is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight.

I believe Wenger planned to make those changes earlier, but when Bale scored so early in the first half (50th minute) and reduced us to a one goal lead he decided to leave Arshavin and Nasri on for their creativity a while longer in an attempt to score and regain the 2 goal advantage (he finally brought them off at 76 minutes). Had that gamble worked and Nasri/Arsha made it 3-1 obviously nobody would be complaining. And it might well have worked had Cesc not made such a ridiculous mistake to gift them the equaliser. Spurs were then full of confidence and always looked more likely to score a winner.

But is anyone blaming Cesc? No of course not, look at his namesake above trying to make Denilson a scapegoat!

well mr blogger there is somthing itching me since chamaks first kinda miss when he was through on goal. There were clear signs of fatigue on his face and wenger admitted he had no legs to go any further.. When wenger knew he is burnt out why he started with him in the second half and the worst thing is chamakh went on to make the same mistake in the second half. I am impressed by chamakh but playing him when he is not fit to play, its wengers fault. You always blame le grove for being negitive to the extreme but you are no diffrent because you are positive to the extreme and biased. You always blame others like wenger, somtimes it feels like this blog is payed to do all this by wenger or arsenal.com. When you have nothing to praise about wenger stop writing and waite untill you get something to praise for. you are no different than other blogs because you are biased and hypocrite.

Fatigue might’ve played a factor, but in the end at no point were we outplayed by the Spurs. We were in control, dominating. The reason we lost is stupid, ridiculous mistakes when defending. That long ball shouldn’t have resulted in a goal, but those kinds of things happen, it’s forgivable. Then we allowed two goals from two free kicks. The first one was a ridiculous handball by Cesc. What was he thinking????? We were back in control at that point and looked likely to make it 3-1. That was the turning point, I believe.

Walter, we need to stop making silly excuses. I know international breaks have been costly to us, but the way this particular game played out you just can’t blame fatigue due to internationals.

“The sooner Wenger becomes General Manager and we bring in a new Head Coach the better”
Interesting thought, actually. And PK, I agree.

Fact is, a massively disappointing result. I read on espn (sorry guys) a few spurs fans admitting that they were crap all day and especially rvdv (who is just another diving dutch douchebag, no disrespect to the other upstanding dutchman out there.) That is a fact.

This squad lacks the mental toughness and focus to finish a game. The second goal is like a curse. A few examples to choose from this year methinks.

Also, true that this squad cannot put teams down. Fatal weakness.

And I’m getting tired of reading that Cesc handled. Literally, yes that’s who the ball hit. From my review and re-review of the free, chamahk raised his right arm and Cesc had his hand on chamahk. Domino effect. Watch again, chamahk’s right arm is above his effing head as the ball comes in! That’s not Fab lapsing, its goddamn chamahk! He needs to sit a few games.

We need to go lay a 3-nil dickstomping on those reprobates in February. UP gunners!

I just would like to add that defence is not just for 4 players who stayed at home during the week.
Maybe it is more to the fact that the tired players didn’t put pressure enouth any more on the Spurs players in the second half?

I also can imagine that during the week before a game as a manager you can train on some things, explain some things, tell them what to do and how to take care of players from the opposition. So most of the time you get a whole week to do such things. Now they got one day because most of the international players were away from monday and only returned during the day on thursday.
Take the fact that the players during this period go from home to a national training centre, then to a hotel, then back to their own country then back to home. And maybe during their trip they have to sit a few hours in a airport waiting for the fog to go away and then change to a train and drive a few hours on that train. This happened this week you know.

You can tell me what you want but this is not the way you prepare a team for an important game.

In my earlier article about fifa I mentioned possible injuries and tiredness.

But how on earth do you prepare your team with only having 3/4 of the players at your disposal for one day and that the day before the game? And at that day you cannot overtrain them as this could cause even more troubles.

And SV you maybe don’t realise it but you just confirm what I mean. When you play in your own team you stay together. But now our players where all over Europe during the week. Tottenham last season was together in their defeat but then got 3 days to come back together! They could work on their game preparation for 3 days TOGETHER. It is in such a way you overcome troubles: by sticking together.

Oh and in that game at WHL they were as lucky as yesterday. We were the better team, they scored a lucky goal out of nothing and Gomes played the best game of his live so far. They just seem to have a lot of luck when playing against us. Eg: their offside goal in the carling cup this season. They just get lucky against us. And combine this luck with players being away for a week and shit can happen.

Outscored yes, but not outplayed.
And believe me I have seen the game 3 times. And each time it gets more and more unbelievable we lost the game.
They capitalised on one long ball hoofed forward without even knowing their would be someone at the end of it.
The ref gave them a free kick which wasn’t a free kick from where they got the penalty.
And finaly they launched a ball in the penalty area from a free kick that could have gone anywhere.

Yes, it has class written all over it. But at the end of the day only the goals come in the league table and this is something we have to live with it. But please don’t tell me Tottenham outclassed or outplayed us.

i still think that is no excuse for loosing a game 3-2 when you are up 2-0 at 45 min. I think we should demand more from boys that earn 30k a week. We should demand more from players that are as good as the arsenal player are. tottenham did not play well yeserday, the fact we totally went down and died in the 2.nd half is unforgivalbe! Champions just dont loose 2-0. Look at United. Even when they play shit they dont loose. Arsenal is too good to loose like this, that is why it stings so much.
It feels like last spring all over again. I hope they all feel ashamed from yesterday. they deffo should!

Interesting point – fatigue played its part. Recovering from internationals seems to be a bit of an issue with us lately – thats because the way we play, we need to be really on top of our game, anything less and we can get undone.
At the end of the day, 17 years is a good record it had to end sometime. It was one of those days, we lost that game to an average team.
Some Gooners seem to be imploding – yes, it was a very bad day but count on us finishing well above Spurs come may – they really are not that good.
Having said all that, we really need to sort out defending – our goals conceded per number of chances will make interesting stats.
We could really do with one of those long undefeated runs we used to go on.
BTW, a lot of fakers on this board today – as I am sure the regulars here have all realised.

Walter u are 100% fifa cost us our game, and I need answear for wrong decition from ref, is FA do some thing to them? I can count more 20 mistake the ref did us this seoson, my friend kill him self because we lost game in the hand of official but I think we need us fans to show (teach) FA a some thing that they open there brain, why I kill my self for some fault? and some of them we know the result before the game start, soon or later some it will happen otherwise FA standup and tack off all this rubbish officials.

Hey, we lost! We can talk about the effect of the international and we may be right but lets keep it under our hats because it sounds like excusemongering. In truth, we musn’t be bipolar about our results thinking we are world beaters after a good result or crap after a poor result. The table rarely lies and we are still in a good position…4 points up on the Tiny Totts even after these weekend’s match.

Nice try Walter but it doesn’t wash. If you’re totally knackered you don’t create chances…we made plenty and screwed them up. Yes, we could/should have won by a couple of goals but it’s the old story of ‘If my aunt had balls…’ The score board doesn’t lie and it hurts.

tony pls do an article about lack of leadership,you know like commandin the players to do this and that,i believe we have no one like that and we pay for it whenever,as you say,”we lose steam”….dont you think that if we had a commanding player at the back of the defense we could have done or could be doing a better job whenever we look sloppy?

To blame this on the internationals, is utterly foolish Tony.
As stated by many before me, this game was lost on tactical flaws made by our manager. Song doesn’t take his DM role very seriously, only trying to go forward. The defending was ridicoulus on all the three goals.

1st goal – noone picks up Bale, and our entire left side was open for Bale to run in.
2nd goal – What the h*** was Cesc thinking here? He should have more routine, and not throw his hands in the air.
3rd goal – a reckless tackle from Kos, how he can take the spot from JD who has been immense when on the pitch is beyond me. And when the freekick is taken we let Kaboul win the ball between to defenders…horrible.

We are Arsenal, we shall NOT loose at home, when 2-0 up after 45. We are Arsenal, and our moral should be boosted even further by our manager after the first half.

For me this game was lost by Wenger, and I have always supported him, and i will not kick him out. But credit where credit’s due, and blame where blame is due.
His tactical and motivational skills are starting to make me little thoughtful.

17 years lost in a few minutes because we didn’t change to optimise our quality. Walcott should have been in the middle not the wing. Dowd was poor as was Wenger. Harry learned and made good decisions. He has taken the piss out of us and his supporters will live on this DVD for more than 20 years.
Our game has not become better for the passing as we are not ruthless in front of goal. Arsenal should be scoring 5 to 10 goals a game with the possession we have.

Spurs won and I am ashamed to have to admit they were better over the 90 minutes because they took their chances. It is horrific to have seen 2 losing matches – particularly considering I have not seen Arsenal lose (live)for 8 years. The pain is almost like being shot.

Such is Arsenal’s inability to hold on to a lead, you would not trust them to walk your dog, let alone win the Premier League. 2-0 down at half-time, Tottenham Hotspur were helpless, hopeless and beaten – against any other side. For 45 minutes a swaggering Arsenal had held a gun to the back of their rivals’ head. Tottenham winced, waiting for the trigger to be pulled to end it all, but it never happened. It rarely does. Like a James Bond villain, they got complacent, bored even, spending too much time telling their victim what they were going to do rather than actually doing it. It was hardly surprising that Tottenham managed to escape their clutches. Arsenal were brilliant in the first half, with Cesc Fábregas and Samir Nasri foolishly granted the freedom to strut their stuff as and when they pleased. At the interval they were heading for the top of the league, which is where they would have stayed all weekend due to Chelsea’s defeat at Birmingham City.

And then they imploded, as they so often do. Already this season they have relinquished leads against Sunderland and Shakhtar Donetsk. Last year they drew 2-2 with West Ham after leading 2-0 with 16 minutes to go, and lost 3-2 to Wigan Athletic after leading 2-0 with 10 minutes left. This is a side that once contrived to draw 4-4 with Tottenham when they were 4-2 up in the 89th minute. It is not surprising, because it keeps on happening.

While there is much to admire about Arsenal’s football, they no longer know how to win and Arsène Wenger is incapable of instilling a maturity in the side. Surely he would have drummed home the importance of retaining their lead for as long as possible; within minutes of the restart, though, Tottenham were back in the game. Arsenal are too open, unable to shut up shop as champions must, lack leadership and concede too many soft goals.

Credit must be given to Harry Redknapp’s brave tactical changes that prompted Tottenham’s revival – his introduction of Jermain Defoe and redeployment of Rafael van der Vaart at half-time were inspired – but this game was all about Arsenal’s fragility in defence. Tottenham’s goals came from a long punt, a foolish handball by Fábregas that conceded a penalty and, finally, a header from a free-kick. All were eminently preventable, yet Arsenal’s creaking back four requires only the slightest push to collapse. The mistakes made by Laurent Koscielny and Sébastien Squillaci were placed into sharper focus by the imperious display by William Gallas for Tottenham. For all his foibles – at one point he appeared to be close to tears – Arsenal could have done with him on Saturday.

I have to agree to a certain degree, for the past couple of seasons, i feel whenever we have actually built up momentum, an international break comes up, then the next match after that, we lost, Im not sure how much it is due to fatigue, but I feel that it is unbelievable how international breaks have costs us.

To a certain extent, the effect of the international break can not be ignored.

My biggest concern is that all of our defeats has come at home, I really have to wonder about our “Home Support” at this stage. Being as far as I am, it does look (on tv), as if our home support leaves a lot to be desired, compared to the travelling support most of the time.
Is there enough coming from the supporters to urge/support players on when they really need it? I don’t think so, more like they put the players under increased pressure.

The Arsenal Home supporters could really do well to learn from the travelling fans. Some of the away games were really tough, but even when the team was battling the support was still there. Could well be a coincidence…but doubt it!

Interesting to see our friends from Stratford turning up on the site. Unfortunately one condition is that you don’t write anonymously, and the email address given by this writer is not valid, so it has been withdrawn.

There are times when Wenger is indefensible, and this is one of them… eg. why is Djourou not ahead of Koscielny? Convince me.

Why must we play the defence so high up even when leading? Did we not learn from so many seasons?

Wenger said after the 2 away wins …”… we have matured..”. After the Spurs loss, he called for ‘maturity…’. Maybe we can do a co-relation between the result of every match and ‘maturity’.

And did the players learn not to speak out to the press about winning titles before a match? Do a co-relation from various seasons and see what the end result was when players spoke about the title chance. Can’t they just shut the F up and focus on the match?

Chamakh… his CV states he is a striker. Is he, and Wenger defended by saying we are too demanding. What would a striker do when put through? Is that a one-off? Nope, happened practically every match that I’m confuse what his main role is.

Take it on the chin and learn from the defeat… and move on. The title race is wide open. That said, we should not defend Wenger blindly. Remember, we support Arsenal… everything else is secondary.

Look, its an interesting piece of analysis on an academic level, but ultimately it is straw-clutching. The analysis lacks comparative context. For example, did having a large number of internationals playing in the week impact other teams in the same way? Man Utd seemed to do ok, as did City. Chelsea, who had fewer on duty, got beaten. West Ham had hardly any and got crushed. Secondly, where were these internationals taking place, and how competitive were they? You might have a point with Arshavin, but was a half paced game against England reserves 5 miles away from the Emirates really that taxing for the French players? Was Chamakh really tired out from playing a friendly game in Dublin? Dont forget Spurs Croatian players travelled a lot further and played on a very dodgey (hence tiring) pitch indeed. Lastly as one of the other posters writes above, Spurs beat Arsenal last season very shortly after playing 120 mins in a cup semi final, on a dreadful pitch that SAF said drains the life out of players (the old Wembley pitch). Yes Spurs tired in the last 15 mins of that match, but were well on top for the first 75. They had far more pace and energy than the Arsenal players on that occassion. So I think its likely that your analysis is meaningless.

One thing I do agree with is that the Saturday 12.45 kick-off slot is unfair on teams that play mid-week. Its a crazy kick-off time anyway – terrible for fans and atmosphere and does lead to odd games,. But again on this occassion Arsenal seemed to be the beneficiaries – Spurs were still asleep for the first 45 mins!

I am afraid the only one talking sense is Arshavin1961 @9:21pm.
I am the first to admit that Arsenal have out played Tottenham in the Prem for a long time at Highbury and then at the Emirates, but you got out foxed in the second half

OK, so why was Walcott on the bench, who only played 45 mins? Wilshere who played none?

The game was lost due to tactical naivety in the second half, not due to FIFA internationals. And the day you want Arsenal to win the league will be the day you stop blaming others for decisions taken by the hierarchy and the players of Arsenal FC in preparation for and during this match.

First goal: Denilson and Song don’t track back with Bale. Nothing to do with tiredness, to do with the two defensive midfielders going on a jaunt up the pitch. Clichy going to challenge Defoe and not getting there and leaving a glaring big hole for Bale to run into. First goal: incompetence, not tiredness.

Second goal: incompetent defending. End of.

If Arsenal were so tired, how come they had one goal rightly disallowed for offside, Koscielny misses a sitter, Walcott blasts over the bar and Fabregas induces a great save from Gomes? They didn’t look tired to me. They were going for it into the last ten minutes and creating chances.

Goal 3: defenders don’t attack the ball, a decision was taken to put no-one on the posts (a decision which may well be correct) meant the header has no-one but Fabianski to beat. Which it did.

The correct analysis was this: incompetence in defence, lack of clinical finishing in the second half.

The day you analyse defeats like a man Walter is the day you’ll induce a winning mentality in Arsenal supporters.

Whoever wrote this should be embarassed. It’s worse than straw-clutching, it’s just pathetic. ‘Clichy was away with France but didn’t play’ ie he stayed in London and trained with different people to normal

Van de Vaart was quiet. That is except for his assists and penalty.

As someone with slightly more idea and a whole lot more class said above, United and City’s internationals didn’t seem to fare too badly

I’ve cut the rest of this because it was just name-calling. For me name-calling is ok if it is associated with some form of logical argument, but when it is just straight abuse it just all seems rather childish and not worth publishing. The aim of this blog is to explore arguments and have debates, not to publish abuse about writers and commentators.

Gizza – in the last 50 years since Tottenham won the league, have there ever been any excuses at all. Or when Tottenham have been relegated, have their ever been any excuses? Or has it been 50 years of saying, “oh well, never mind?”

agreed fifa was a factor .. but you cant write a full article blaming it … have to accept the fact that we lost. but yea id blame international friendlies too …
sadly we werent outplayed at ALL .. wud hav felt better if we were outplayed and then lost .. rather than controlling the game throughtout .. and i guess yea the handball was kinda stupid from fabregas’s part ..